It’s been more than a year since the 115-year-old Anglican Church of the Epiphany was scorched in a string of alleged arson attacks across the Masterton township.
Epiphany has not hosted another service since. Instead, they’ve been held at the Hadlow Preparatory School hall.
But with planning permission recently granted, there are hopes the rebuild will be completed in the next three to four months.
People’s Warden for the parish Paul Maguire recalled receiving an early morning wake-up call around 6am on February 22.
His church and five others had been deliberately set on fire, he was told. A man is currently facing charges relating to the alleged arsons.
“It's devastating, really. Your heart sinks when you hear news like that, you don't know what to think,” he said.
“All I was told on the phone was, ‘There's been an arson attack at the church, can you get down here?’ So, I didn't know whether the church was on the ground or partly damaged.”
While it wasn’t burned to the ground, there was still significant damage.
Claire Marara was also a warden when the fire occurred. She has since stood down from that role while remaining on as project manager for the insurance claims and rebuild.
“They had to do quite a lot of demolishing inside to figure out the extent of the damage,” she said.
The foyer was the worst off, while the full length of the church's roof was also left blackened.
“And obviously all the AV equipment and all the wiring and the heating and everything like that, all just completely destroyed."
It came as quite a shock for the parish and wider community.
"For a lot of our parishioners, there was a lot of tears shed when they came down. I think it was just that shock and disbelief that something like that would happen in our sleepy little community," Marara said.
Getting a church built in 1911 restored to its original glory has been difficult, Maguire said, especially given the need to source native rimu timber.
While insurance covered the major fire-related damage, the church faced a $20,000 funding gap for wider exterior work needed for proper restoration and future-proofing.
For that, they’ve had to rely on the goodwill of the community, partly through a Givealittle page that has raised $4,495 so far. An additional $5000 donation made directly has put them almost halfway to covering the shortfall.
‘The church is not the building, it’s the people’
The church has been an important part of Maguire and Marara’s lives for years.
“I was almost part of Epiphany before I was born,” Maguire said. His parents were married there.
“It’s been part of my life always. Sometimes I was away or working and couldn't be there all the time, but I've always felt part of it, and it's just part of my life, and always has been, and I love it dearly as a building, as a church and as a place to be.”
Marara has been attending Epiphany for around six years, and while she's “not quite as long in the tooth as Paul”, it still holds a dear place in her heart.
“It's somewhere that our children chose as the place where they felt most welcomed when we moved to a new town.”
The community involved with the church was what made it special, they said. And the community has stood strong with the church from the start.
“It was really heartwarming. I think that first morning… we had just members of the public and people from other churches just stopping, coming to offer support, builders turning up to see if they could help," Marara said.
“We’re always quick to say the church is not the building, it’s the people.”
But the building being off-limits for so long has not been easy.
“The congregation has been very loyal to the church. Sadly, over these last 14 months, some of those older people have passed away. Part of their life was wanting to have their funeral service at Epiphany, and they couldn’t, which must have been hard for the families, and it’s been hard for us," Maguire said.
In addition to regular Sunday services, it was a pickup spot for the local fruit and vege co-op on Wednesdays, a host for men’s breakfasts, women’s social events, and all sorts of other community initiatives that have had to go on hold.
It was also the chapel of the nearby Hadlow Preparatory School, which used to walk together down to Epiphany every Monday morning.
“It was such a simple routine, but it made the week feel grounded,” a tribute from school principal Andrew Osmond read.
“When we finally go back, I know the first service will be a big moment. It won’t just be a building reopening. It’ll be a part of our identity snapping back into place.”
Marara said the wider community was similarly excited for a potential reopening in several months’ time.
"Everybody is just really looking forward to it. There was probably a period where we wondered if it would ever happen,” she said.
"There’s a lot of anticipation now that things will happen. And yeah, we’ll be back, because they want to be back," Maguire added.
The case of the man arrested and charged with the arson attacks last May was still before the courts, police said.
The now 45-year-old man was due to reappear in the Wellington District Court on July 14.
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